Cybersecurity poster boy and government surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden has revealed that he played a pivotal role in the creation of the Zcash (ZEC) privacy token.
A video from Zcash Media shows an interview with Snowden in which he explains his involvement as one of six individuals who held a piece of Zcash’s private key. to launch the project on October 23, 2016. In the video, Snowden stated:
“My name is Edward Snowden. I participated in the original Zcash ceremony under the pseudonym John Dobbertin.”
Edward Snowden is the whistleblower who exposed US government surveillance tactics and went into hiding in 2013.
Zcash is a decentralized blockchain that uses zero-knowledge proofs in its transactions.. Zcash transactions cannot be traced and the amounts transmitted cannot be determined, unlike the relatively transparent Bitcoin (BTC).
SURPRISE! Our 2nd video came early.
Watch it now to learn about #zcash‘s Ceremony, how it worked, why @ebfull‘s Halo breakthrough makes it obsolete, and an exclusive interview with #JohnDobbertin himself, Edward @Snowden.
️ https://t.co/Pyk0pwkIto
️ https://t.co/RxgJgbtBcR pic.twitter.com/2efMGnmRx1— Zcash Media ️ (@zcashmedia) April 27, 2022
SURPRISE! Our second video has been advanced. Watch now to learn about the Zcash Ceremony, how it worked, why @ebfull’s Halo trailer makes it obsolete, and an exclusive interview with #JohnDobbertin himself, Edward @Snowden.
️ https://t.co/Pyk0pwkIto
️ https://t.co/RxgJgbtBcR pic.twitter.com/2efMGnmRx1
At the Zcash ceremony, Snowden and five others each combined their share of the Zcash private key to launch the project.. None of the participants knew who the others were or what part of the key they had to protect their anonymity, one of the principles of the project.
Each person’s part of the key had to be destroyed to prevent counterfeiting of coins or transactions in the future.
In the interview with Zcash Media, Snowden shared his enthusiasm for the project and his concern for privacy.. He said: “The problem with [Bitcoin] is that you cannot have a truly free trade unless you have a private trade.”
“I am very happy to see that the Zcash project […] It brings us closer and closer to that ideal of a free currency that is also a private currency.”
Another of the participants in the ceremony, the developer of Bitcoin Peter Todd, recalled the “legendary measures that the participants in the Zcash Ceremony arrived at to avoid being hacked”.
So turns out Snowden was one of the six participants in the Zcash trusted setup that I also participated in. Which I criticized heavily for being busted, followed by Zcash people falsely accusing me of sexual assault in retaliation.
Life is so weird and fucked up. https://t.co/bFuvg0izKs
— Peter Todd (@peterktodd) April 27, 2022
It turns out that Snowden was one of the six participants in the Zcash trust setup that I also participated in. Which I strongly criticized to get caught, followed by the Zcash people falsely accusing me of sexual assault in retaliation. Life is so weird and fucked up. https://t.co/bFuvg0izKs
Todd said he bought a new computer and installed all the necessary programs for the ceremony and then placed the computer in a faraday cage to prevent any unwanted intrusion.. A faraday cage is a box lined with aluminum foil, which reflects Wi-Fi signals.
Then, went to a remote area where he took a blowtorch to his device to destroy his part of the Zcash private key.
The news of Snowden’s contribution did not have much effect on the price, as ZEC is currently up 1.7% in the last 24 hours, trading at $148 according to Cointelegraph data.
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